This podcast is intended for mature audiences, listener discretion is advised.

In early summer of 2020, I received a phone call from Stoney asking me to meet him at a hotel

just outside Winder. He simply said, I have something I have to show you.

When Stoney arrives, he's carrying with him a large wooden chest and a mason jar full of whiskey.

As we enter room 220, he locks the door behind us and places the wooden box on the bed.

While I'm setting up my audio equipment, Stoney takes several large swigs of whiskey

and begins to tell me his story. When my dad come home and he was dressed up and asked me to

crawl up into the house for him and I was scared of spiders. I said, I was about eight. I said,

then I was scared of spiders. He said, man, spiders are there. Do this for me. So I crawled

in the house. I went to the pole where he said I took a lift and I found the tip of rock and I

pulled it up and that was the back of money. He said, don't look in it. First I got

those look in it for the money. That was my childhood was what led me to

come to find something else that I've never told anyone.

The old wooden chest that Stoney brought with him sits inconspicuously at the foot of the hotel

bed. It's crudely made and there's an iron clasp on the front. Show boxes like this a lot because

when I put something in the box like this are either a satchel. This old I know that it's something

that's precious to me and I don't forget what's in it. Now when I put it in the box like this,

I furthermore put it in a garbage bag and then furthermore put it in something fireproof.

This box is probably 50 years old.

Inside the box of mementos are stacks of old newspaper clippings, odd looking

crocheted stuffed animals and crocheted picture frames that Billy Burke made with family photos

inside. The first thing you see is the date should be on here. That's a picture of my mother,

...